Clickers and Online Homework in the Criminal Justice Classroom: A Test Study

The criminal justice discipline has few studies that explore the use of technology as a supplement to traditional face-to-face instruction. Using a sample of criminal justice students enrolled in two sections of the same 300-level foundational criminal justice course, this study examines the impact of clickers and online homework on student performance in the course, as well as observes student perceptions of the integrated technology. Results reveal that while students perceived the technologies as helpful to their learning, the addition of technologies to the one section of the course had little impact on student performance indicators such as test scores and final letter grades. Potential explanations for these findings and directions for future research are discussed; and suggestions on how to potentially make these supplemental tools more useful are provided.     

E–Learning in Hong Kong: comparing learning outcomes in online multimedia and lecture versions of an introductory computing course

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of Web–based, highly interactive, and multimedia–rich e–learning materials by comparing students' learning outcomes in the lecture and online versions of an introductory computing course. The course versions differed only in that face–to–face lectures were replaced with e–learning modules in the online course; the other course elements (laboratory sessions, use of computer–mediated communications, examinations) were the same. The e–learning trial took place at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where the first author taught the lecture course to 105 students, and the online course to 180 and 129 students in the following semesters. The lecture and online students achieved comparable factual learning outcomes and the online students outperformed the lecture students in applied–conceptual learning. Findings suggest that the use of carefully designed interactive e–learning modules fosters higher–order learning outcomes.     

Making the Decision to Provide Enhanced Podcasts to Post-Secondary Science Students

Providing students with supplementary course materials such as audio podcasts, enhanced podcasts, video podcasts and other forms of lecture-capture video files after a lecture is now a common occurrence in many post-secondary courses. We used an online questionnaire to ask students how helpful enhanced podcasts were for a variety of course activities and how important having access to the enhanced podcasts was in their decision to miss classes. Student responses from two courses, one introductory and one advanced, were compared. Students in the introductory Genetics course reported that having access to enhanced podcasts was “very important” in their decision to miss class more often (39%) than those in the advanced Microbiology course (20%). They also reported missing more classes than students in the advanced course. Students in both courses found the enhanced podcasts helpful for a range of learning activities. First year students who missed just a few classes and those who missed many classes both found the enhanced podcasts to be very helpful for learning activities. We argue that creating these resources is a good choice for instructors irrespective of the level of the course they teach and that the potential value of these resources, particularly for first year students, outweighs any impact that having access to supplementary enhanced podcasts of the lectures may have on class attendance.     

It's Not the Moore Method,But… A Student-Driven,Textbook-Supported,Approach to Teaching Upper-Division Mathematics

This paper describes, as an alternative to the Moore Method or a purely flipped classroom, a student-driven, textbook-supported method for teaching that allows movement through the standard course material with differing depths, but the same pace. This method, which includes a combination of board work followed by class discussion, on-demand brief lectures by the professor, written homework, exams, and a course portfolio, has been used successfully for 25 years with four different textbooks in Real Analysis. It has also been used in an introduction to abstract mathematics course.     

Access Patterns of Online Materials in a Blended Course

Patterns in student accesses of online materials and their effects upon student performance in a blended course are examined. Our blended course is an introductory business and economic statistics course where lectures are only available online while the traditional class period is used for complementary learning activities. Timing, volumes, intensity, and consistency of the student accesses of the online lectures are considered. Using bivariate and multivariate analyses, measures of timing and consistency are shown to be related to student performance but volumes and intensity of accesses are not.     

An eight‐year study of online lecture use in a medical gross anatomy and embryology course

Online lectures have been used in lieu of live lectures in our gross anatomy and embryology course for the past eight years. We examined patterns of online lecture use by our students and related that use to academic entry measures, gender and examination performance. Detailed access records identified by student were available from server logs. Total views per page of lecture material increased over the first six years, then decreased markedly between years seven and eight, possibly due to the recent availability of alternate forms of lecture audio. Lecture use peaked in midafternoon and again in the evening, although some use was seen at all hours. Usage was highest at midweek and lowest on Fridays as might be expected. Individual student's use varied widely from rates equivalent to less than one viewing/page to more than three viewings per page. Overall use by male students was greater than that of females and gender‐specific differences in the daily pattern were seen. Lecture use was correlated to the Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) Verbal Reasoning and Physical Sciences scores but not to composite MCAT scores or undergraduate grade point average. Overall use appeared to be driven by scheduled team‐based learning (TBL) sessions and major examinations. Specific subsets of lecture material were most often viewed before related TBL sessions and again during review for examinations. A small but significant correlation between lecture use and examination and course performance was seen, specifically in the male student population. These findings, along with earlier observations, suggest that varied use of online lectures is attributable to multiple factors. Anat Sci Educ © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

Learning Style and Effectiveness of Online and Face-to-Face Instruction

In this study the investigator compared two sections of the same course-one section was online and asynchronous; the other was face-to-face-by examining gender, age, learning preferences and styles, media familiarity, effectiveness of tasks, course effectiveness, test grades, and final grades. The two sections were taught by the same instructor and used the same instructional materials. The results revealed no significant differences in test scores, assignments, participation grades, and final grades, although the online group's averages were slightly higher. Ninety-six percent of the online students found the course to be either as effective or more effective to their learning than their typical face-to-face course. There were no significant differences between learning preferences and styles and grades in either group. The study showed that equivalent learning activities can be equally effective for online and face-to-face learners.     

E-assessment of online academic courses via students' activities and perceptions

The rapid growth of online courses in higher education has led to developments in the field of e-assessment. This paper presents a study, which examined the quality of online academic courses using a multidimensional assessment of students' activities and perceptions, using educational data mining and an online questionnaire. The assessment focused on four aspects: instructional, communication, course workload and overall learning experience. The course instructional model was found well-structured. The video lectures, assignments and materials designed for the online course were the most used and contributing learning resources. However, the number of students who entered the video lectures decreased as the course progressed. Low activity was found in the discussion forums. Students perceived the course workload as low. Overall, the learning experience was high and the students were highly satisfied. These findings provide insights that may assist in improving the quality of future online courses.     

Evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of providing lecture notes: The role of internet technology as a delivery system and research tool

Relationships among patterns of access to online notes, examination performance, and student absenteeism were examined. Students who made more frequent use of online notes performed at a higher level on course examinations. Students most frequently accessed online notes while corresponding lecture content was being presented in class, but this pattern weakened to some extent during the semester. Students who attended class most consistently made greater use of online notes. Patterns of online note use were different for students with low and high rates of absenteeism.     

A Comparison of Online,Video Synchronous,and Traditional Learning Modes for an Introductory Undergraduate Physics Course

While the equivalence between online and traditional classrooms has been well-researched, very little of this includes college-level introductory Physics. Only one study explored Physics at the whole-class level rather than specific course components such as a single lab or a homework platform. In this work, we compared the failure rate, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates in an introductory undergraduate Physics course across several learning modes including traditional face-to-face instruction, synchronous video instruction, and online classes. Statistically significant differences were found for student failure rates, grade distribution, and withdrawal rates but yielded small effect sizes. Post-hoc pair-wise test was run to determine differences between learning modes. Online students had a significantly lower failure rate than students who took the class via synchronous video classroom. While statistically significant differences were found for grade distributions, the pair-wise comparison yielded no statistically significance differences between learning modes when using the more conservative Bonferroni correction in post-hoc testing. Finally, in this study, student withdrawal rates were lowest for students who took the class in person (in-person classroom and synchronous video classroom) than online. Students that persist in an online introductory Physics class are more likely to achieve an A than in other modes. However, the withdrawal rate is higher from online Physics courses. Further research is warranted to better understand the reasons for higher withdrawal rates in online courses. Finding the root cause to help eliminate differences in student performance across learning modes should remain a high priority for education researchers and the education community as a whole.     

Online homework impact in undergraduate mathematics and business statistics courses

This evaluation examines the impact on student success rates related to changes in instructional programmes in undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses. Success for students taking courses with a computer-based homework component was compared with success of students who took the course in prior semesters without the computer-based component. Graphical and analytical tools are used to compare results. Results come from multiple semesters of each type of homework application, for both pre-calculus algebra and business statistics courses. Students whose performance is utilised in this study are undergraduate students taking introductory level college mathematics or business statistics courses, with mostly no prior instruction at this level. Comparing the success of the intervention group with the success of the baseline control group, findings support that the students using the computer-based homework instruction are just as successful as those using the traditional method of homework instruction. Utilising the online homework applications, provide several important advantages in today’s universities, including the reduced time for faculty grading, consistency of graded assignments across all sections of a course and most importantly, immediate feedback for students.     

高校实践课程线上教学的改革模式探讨

针对疫情下"汽车拆装实习"课程无法进行传统教学模式的问题,结合现有网络教学平台资源建设,提出了"以科学探究为主线、能力素质培养为核心"的线上实践课程教学改革模式探索。采用学生自主预习、教师讲授与学生讨论法相结合的教学方案,通过学生出勤率、上课互动情况以及线上作业提交情况作为课程成绩考核依据。实践表明,线上课程教学能有效地在疫情下完成教学工作,也为传统教学模式的改革探索提供了新的思路。     

The Flipped Classroom of Operations Management: A Not‐For‐Cost‐Reduction Platform

By delivering lectures online using screen capture technology, students can learn course material at the time and location of their choice, when they are in control to pause, rewind, and fast forward the professor. Class time is no longer spent teaching basic concepts, but rather focused on more value‐added activities such as problem solving, systems thinking and active learning, as well as potential collaborative exercises such as case studies, web‐based simulation games, and real‐world applications. A flipped classroom is an online course because its online components must compete with the best of the online courses. It is also a traditional course since not even a single class session is cancelled while all the lectures are delivered online. This core concept is reinforced by a network of resources and learning processes to ensure a smooth, lean, and synchronized course delivery system. Our pilot statistical analysis indicates that a flipped classroom, when implemented in a quantitative and analytical course, can outperform its alternatives.     

Improving the study habits of minority students through web-based courses

Conclusions Asynchronous Distance Learning courseware offers several advantages to multiple disadvantaged learning populations. While asynchronous Distance Learning Interactive Multimedia Instruction offers financially strapped HBCUs lower operating costs, it also offers HBCUs and non-traditional student populations improved (1) accessibility, (2) user acceptance. Many Distance Learning students chose online sections as an alternative to not taking the course at all rather than to the traditional classroom section. Among technologically savvy populations, user acceptance for Distance Learning is high. Also interesting was how traditional learning populations benefited from some Distance Learning strengths, (1) hypermedia external resources for self-directed learning, and (2) frequently graded assignments improving study habits. In converse, the non-traditional student populations taking the Distance Learning sections reported less studying time, and suffered from slightly lower learning retention on the final examination.     

Student activity and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the course material in discussion groups focusing on the lectures, quizzes and students’ own notes. Each student’s data recording of activities and individual participation in discussion in the online course was analysed in order to assess which activities predicted learning outcome. Higher course grades were associated with studying the course material frequently and also with regular participation in reading postings and replying to them. There were no connections between learning outcome and the students’ original contributions to the discussion forums. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in how they utilised the various components of the learning material.     

Online Tutoring Research Study for Remedial Algebra

In 2012, the City University of New York undertook to examine whether online tutoring would be helpful to remedial algebra students. The research study was done in the spring 2012 semester at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). The research question was two-fold: (a) Does online tutoring help improve pass rates among remedial algebra students? and (b) Do remedial algebra students find that online tutoring is helpful? A random sample of eight sections of Elementary Algebra was chosen from the 112 sections of that course offered in the spring semester. This amounted to a total of 195 students in the research sections, with 2,521 remaining students in the control (nontreatment) sections. All students in the eight treatment sections were given access to the Brainfuse online tutoring system. Midterm scores, final exam scores, and opinion surveys were collected. An overwhelming proportion of those who used the service found it helpful (94.7%) and would recommend it to a friend (100.0%). However, the pass rates in the study were nearly the same for the treatment and control groups, and a logistic regression analysis, comparing two statistically matched cohorts, showed no significant differences. One issue was that the sample of those who chose to use the service was small. Also, many of those who needed the most help were not the ones who used the service. It may be that in terms of improving pass rates, outreach and counseling for students could be more efficacious than simply offering a tutoring service.     

网络课程再工程的设计与实现

越来越多的大学正逐步把现有的网络课程平台向教育云服务平台过渡,实际上这是一个网络课程系统再工程的过程。在保持原有网络课程系统主要功能的基础上,移植原系统所使用的框架和重构原系统的数据访问层,采用GoogleApp Engine、Google Web Toolkit和Ext-GWT等技术并结合面向服务开发方式,我们成功地实施了把传统技术开发的网络课程再工程到Google云计算平台。随着Google App Engine SDK的不断完善,会有越来越多的优秀框架陆续受到支持,从而降低再工程的难度。     

Peer Learning and Support of Technology in an Undergraduate Biology Course to Enhance Deep Learning

This study offers an innovative and sustainable instructional model for an introductory undergraduate course. The model was gradually implemented during 3 yr in a research university in a large-lecture biology course that enrolled biology majors and nonmajors. It gives priority to sources not used enough to enhance active learning in higher education: technology and the students themselves. Most of the lectures were replaced with continuous individual learning and 1-mo group learning of one topic, both supported by an interactive online tutorial. Assessment included open-ended complex questions requiring higher-order thinking skills that were added to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) exam. Analysis of students’ outcomes indicates no significant difference among the three intervention versions in the MC questions of the exam, while students who took part in active-learning groups at the advanced version of the model had significantly higher scores in the more demanding open-ended questions compared with their counterparts. We believe that social-constructivist learning of one topic during 1 mo has significantly contributed to student deep learning across topics. It developed a biological discourse, which is more typical to advanced stages of learning biology, and changed the image of instructors from “knowledge transmitters” to “role model scientists.”     

Success of students in a college physics course with and without experiencing a high school course

High school students with high ability were enrolled in a standard college physics course for each of two summers with the same professor, same course outline, same textbook, same laboratories, and the same examinations. Half of each group had completed a high school physics course; half had not. Dormitory counselors were available for assistance and support. In addition, tutors were available in the laboratories to provide any help necessary with interpretation of lectures and performances in the laboratory, and with mathematical computation. Pre- and posttest measures concerning course content and attitude were given. After the eight-week summer instruction, the students who had not completed high school physics performed as well on the final course examination; there were no differences with respect to course grade or attitude toward physics. The group that had not completed high school physics used the tutors provided far more frequently than did students who had completed the high school course. When high-ability students are enrolled in college physics with tutors made available for needed assistance, there appears to be no advantage for students to complete the standard high school physics course.